For several years, the automation of accounting and security functions having to do with coin-operated gaming machines has been shown to be a desirable and cost-effective method of obtaining accurate and timely data concerning the operation of these machines. In recent years, the automated accumulation of data concerning individual players, either in conjunction with the accounting and security information or without it, has also shown itself to be desirable as an effective marketing technique. Treating players in much the same manner as the airlines treat members of their "fragment flyer" clubs, game machine proprietors can, by keeping an accounting of the amount a player spends in their establishment, reward the patron accordingly. Also, by enrolling the player as a "preferred customer," the establishment can obtain a name and address, as well as certain other biographical and demographic data which is useful in the maintaining of a mailing list and other marketing efforts. There are also instances wherein the use of a player-carried device such as a magnetic-stripe card such as the card shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,622 can be used to enable players to use coin-operated game devices by paying a lump sum in lieu of using individual coins. In these cases, the card is the means of identifying the player, while the actual accounting of play takes place in a central computer electronically connected to the gaming machines.
Another important function of gaming machine data transfer systems is to provide accounting and security information to casino operators. Most of these applications have in the past required the gaming machines to be directly connected to the central computer. Examples of such gaming machine data transfer systems are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,072,930, 4,283,709 and 4,636,951. This usually entails a large computer equipment installation, and the installation of an extensive network of data communication cables and associated equipment. And, since the central computer is usually connected to a large number of gaming machines, in some cases up to 2000 or more machines in a real time data communication configuration, a powerful and hence expensive central computer is required. Another disadvantage of these systems arises from the fact that the distance that the data can be transmitted is usually, as a practical matter, limited, thus the central computer is usually restricted to the same premises as the gaming machines. As a result, these electronic gaming machine information systems tend to be limited to gaming operations where a relatively large number of machines are located in close proximity to each other.
One approach to solving these problems was attempted in the SDS V system developed by Bally Systems Division of Bally Manufacturing Corporation in which a portable data recording unit having a microprocessor and limited semiconductor memory was used to collect data from slot machines. The data thus collected by an employee of the machine owner was transferred to a central data system when the recording unit was connected to a data input device in the central system. However, this approach suffered from a number of deficiencies including limitations in the type and amounts of data that could be collected, no capability to collect player information and no ability to transfer information to the slot machine.